Congress passed its big tax bill. What are the next fights on Capitol Hill?

Yahoo

17-07-2025

WASHINGTON – Republicans in Congress spent the first half of the year focused on one goal: Passing President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending package. Mission accomplished.
Now lawmakers will turn to other items on their to-do list that they've been pushing off as they turn their attention to a variety of pressing topics. The list includes possibly imposing new sanctions against Russia, directing the Pentagon on its global defense mission, funding the U.S. government and addressing Elon Musk's efforts to cut spending on NPR, PBS and the U.S. Agency for International Development during the early days of the new GOP administration.
But nothing is easy in the narrowly divided House and Senate, where Republicans can lose only three votes in both chambers to achieve a majority. In the Senate, 60 votes are needed for most legislation in order to clear the filibuster.
Here's what's coming next on Capitol Hill:
Codifying DOGE cuts
Earlier this summer, Trump asked Republicans in Congress to claw back $9.4 billion of federal funding to reflect a portion of the cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency task force.
The move would strip funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and from foreign aid agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization.
If lawmakers don't act on it by July 18, the request will expire and the funding will stay in place.
Republicans won't need Democratic votes to get it through the Senate, as it only requires a majority vote and Republicans control the chamber 53-47. However, some Republican senators are pushing for changes to the package to preserve funding for AIDS prevention and it is unclear whether it can get the votes to pass.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to his fellow Democrats calling the GOP plan a "toxic proposal" that, if passed, amounts to Republicans bypassing the traditional bipartisan spending process with "grave implications" for the balance of power.
Avoiding a government shutdown
Congress must pass annual appropriations bills to keep the government running. If they fail to do so, the government will shut down. That means most federal employees will be temporarily out of work, national parks would close, and some services like federal food inspections would be interrupted.
The deadline to fund the government is Sept. 30. Because lawmakers don't meet in August, that leaves only six working weeks to get it done.
Doing it the traditional way – both the House and Senate considering 12 spending bills on different subjects, stitching them together, and passing it with a bipartisan vote – is unlikely. Instead, lawmakers will probably need another funding extension with bipartisan support to keep the government running.
That won't be easy: Democrats are furious with Republicans' plan to claw back existing funding and are under pressure from their base to push back on GOP rule. The political backlash Schumer faced from his left over the decision to help pass the last funding extension hasn't been forgotten. Expect some dealmaking close to the deadline – or a government shutdown.
More party-line spending bills?
As Republicans sought to pass Trump's tax bill, fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate put up a fight over the more than $3.4 trillion the law is expected to add to the federal debt.
In order to get them on board, some lawmakers say Republican leadership told them they would pursue a second and potentially third party-line package to pursue deeper spending cuts before this Congress concludes at the end of 2026.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told reporters July 8 that he has "a fair amount of confidence" based on conversations with Trump and GOP leadership "we will have a second bite of the apple."
But getting another party-line bill done will be a challenge, as narrow margins in both chambers already made it difficult for Republican leaders to muscle Trump's tax bill through.
Directing defense policy
Approving the National Defense Authorization Act is an annual must-do for Congress. Lawmakers use the bill to shape federal defense policies and authorize spending in the Department of Defense.
Once House and Senate lawmakers have finalized their proposals, they will work across the Capitol to reach a compromise between both chambers.
The Republican tax bill included $150 billion for defense, but the Pentagon has asked Congress for $1 trillion. The NDAA will likely dredge up new policy fights, from anti-drone systems to making it harder for the United States to withdraw troops from Europe.
Russia sanctions
A group of bipartisan lawmakers led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, has been pushing a bill to implement sanctions on Russia in order to discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said July 9 that he plans to bring the bill up for a vote before the end of the month. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also expressed interest in putting sanctions on Russia and has said he's open to holding a vote on the bill. It must pass both chambers in order to be signed into law.
The proposal would impose stiff tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy, and would likely give the president broad power to decide when to enforce the sanctions.
Trump has previously called the legislation "harsh" and expressed skepticism that it would work, but he has since softened on the bill as his frustration with Putin rises.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The next major battles on Capitol Hill